Emperor Palamecia all but invited the rebels into his throne room so they could kill him. Just according to keikaku, he then splits his soul in half, conquers heaven and hell with each half, and returns to the land of the living to finish his military campaign. +500 badass points.

Kefka: Garland, Palamecia, and Xande don't have much screen time to develop a personality. Exdeath is transparently thin. Golbez appears transparently thin until the tweest at the end of the game. But from the very first "Edgar, you pinhead!" you know Kefka's something special. Plus he managed to destroy the world while the party was standing right there. +500 shit just got real points.

Honorable mentions: Ultimecia, the series' premiere time mage. Kuja, who proves his magical prowess by hiding his tail in a thong somehow. Xande, who lacks the dramatic understanding to understand the gift he was given.

Kuja doesn't get enough love. He's like the best qualities of all the previous villains rolled into one androgynous space hobbit. He has the theatrical flair of Kefka, the tragic motivation of Sephiroth, the sex appeal of Ultimecia, he is associated with a sinister tree like Exdeath, and he can turn super-saiyan and blow up planets like Vegeta. Plus his music is really cool.